Did they or didn't they? That was the question of the day in Major League Baseball on Tuesday, after the New York Daily News ran a story saying St. Louis Cardinals fans were calling new Chicago Cubs outfielder the N-word during his return to St. Louis on Monday night.
Heyward, who spurned the Cards and signed an eight-year contract with the rival Cubs this past winter, had elicited a lot of hate from Cardinals fans since his decision. But racial slurs at the ballpark? That was a cause for concern.
The Daily News story was built around four tweets from fans who claimed to hear the slurs on TV, but as the hours passed on Tuesday, no video or audio of the alleged slurs surfaced. ESPN and the Cardinals both investigated the alleged incident. As did Deadspin, which very often criticizes the Cardinals, and even it said there was no audible proof of slurs being hurled Heyward's way.
Before the Cubs and Cardinals took the field again Tuesday night, there was one key person still yet to address the issue — Heyward himself. He said he didn't hear anything either, telling Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago:
 | @CSNMooney | |
Jason Heyward said he didn't hear any specific racial slurs on Monday in St. Louis but "honestly I wasn't really listening."
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On a more troubling note, Heyward makes it sounds like even if he had heard something, it wouldn't be an uncommon occurrence:
| @CSNMooney | |
Heyward: "I don't feel like it's a story. It's something I've dealt with my whole life. Keep going and don't really give it any attention."
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Heyward's comments seem to point to a bigger picture that we all know is true: There are horrible people in every city. Every sporting event has at least a few people who drink too much or don't have self control or don't know how to behave in public. That doesn't make it right, mind you, but it's just a reality when tens of thousands of people cram into a stadium.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon acknowledged as much before Tuesday's game:
| @CSNMooney | |
Joe Maddon: "There’s small-minded people everywhere, man. There are stupid people everywhere. It’s not unique to one spot and one ballpark."
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| @CSNMooney | |
Maddon on Heyward and #Cardinals fans: "We’ve come a long way, but then again we haven’t. So none of it surprises if in fact it was true."
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What makes this story even more fascinating is the "why?" of it all. Anybody who follows the @BestStLouisFans account on Twitter knows that the Cardinals have some fans prone to saying racist, sexist and all-around cringeworthy things. Of course, if every team had a Twitter account dedicated to finding its worst fans, would the results be that much different for the 29 other fan bases?
Point remains, whether deserved or not, Cardinals have a certain reputation for these things in 2016. Your more level-headed Cardinals fans would argue that the good apples far outnumber the bad ones, and the bad apples are, in fact, tainting St. Louis' reputation as a baseball city. Those same level-headed Cardinals fans would tell you the national media is quick to run with any story that makes Cardinals fans look bad, because it's an easy narrative to which you can attach 300 words.
All that may be true, but one important point remains: Even if there's one fan in an MLB stadium calling Heyward (or any player for that matter) a racial slur, that's one too many.
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